Robert Stein (1950)

Robert Stein (1972)

Robert Stein (2000s)

About Me

editor, publisher, media critic and journalism teacher,
is a former Chairman of the American Society of Magazine Editors, and author of “Media Power: Who Is Shaping Your Picture of the World?” Before the war in Iraq, he wrote in The New York Times: “I see a generation gap in the debate over going to war in Iraq. Those of us who fought in World War II know there was no instant or easy glory in being part of 'The Greatest Generation,' just as we knew in the 1990s that stock-market booms don’t last forever.
We don’t have all the answers, but we want to spare our children and grandchildren from being slaughtered by politicians with a video-game mentality."
This is not meant to extol geezer wisdom but suggest that, even in our age of 24/7 hot flashes, something can be said for perspective.
The Web is a wide space for spreading news, but it can also be a deep well of collective memory to help us understand today’s world. In olden days, tribes kept village elders around to remind them with which foot to begin the ritual dance. Start the music.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Unseating Ted Cruz

Is he legislator or conspirator? During ten months in
Washington, Ted Cruz has spent more time with House members than in his own
chamber, culminating last night in being caught secretly huddling with a score
of them at a DC night spot just before today’s Tea Party refusal to reopen the
government.

In the face of five more years, there are fringe petitions
circulating in Texas to recall Cruz, but shouldn’t owl-eyed old Washington
hands be searching the arcane rules of Congress for some musty old statute that
forbids such House-breaking?

If he is to survive as Speaker, John Boehner had
better put a crew of toadies on the case full-time. Never in memory has there
been such blatant inter-chamber subversion.

Meanwhile, the hours tick away and the nation is
paralyzed. When I was writing a post on Bipolar Disorder yesterday, I went to
the National Institute of Health for basic information on the condition and was
greeted with this heading:

“Due to the lapse in government funding, the
information on this web site may not be up to date, transactions submitted via
the web site may not be processed, and the agency may not be able to respond to
inquiries until appropriations are enacted. Updates regarding government
operating status and resumption of normal operations can be found at USA.gov.”

That sums up where America is today perfectly. Even
if you want to research madness, the Shutdown won’t let you.

If we are all to get out of this trap with our sanity
intact, somebody had better find a way to get Cruz out of what used to be
called the catbird seat.

Update: The internecine GOP war teeters at
the edge of going public as Texas' biggest newspaper takes back its Cruz election endorsement and an anonymous Senate aide mutters aloud to a liberal
blog, "Ted Cruz and his Tortilla Coast Republicans are leading us to a
default.” What will it take to get his cohorts to speak up loud and clear? Time
is short.